Subscribe
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE

The waning year has painted Pras MichĂ©l as self-centered villain who doesn’t care about the child he fathered. According to the former member of the Fugees, you can blame the New York Post and his 4-year-old son’s mother, Angela Severiano, 38, for that.

Pras, 42, says he really don’t like doing interviews but given Hip-Hop Wired’s accurate coverage of the ongoing drama in his personal life, he felt the need to set the record straight once and for all in an exclusive conversation. He calls Page Six’s continuous headlines “very misleading” and is out to prove he’s paying child support down to the last penny that the state requires.

Despite the ongoing child support drama in 2014, Pras maintains that he and Severiano really never were even an item.

“In all honesty, I have no relationship with this woman,” he admits. “But the child is my responsibility and if I have to pay $3,000 or whatever, I’m doing that. But here’s the truth of the matter–and I don’t care who knows–I only slept with her twice. When I was intimate with her, I was responsible but the condom came off. And she said to me, ‘Oh, I’m cool! I’m on the pill!,” he recalls. “Then she comes back to me three months later talking about, ‘I’m pregnant.’ This is the type of woman we’re dealing with. She’s worse than a video vixen!”

Additionally, there are reports that allege Pras raked in $1.7 million–which he calls “hearsay,” saying it was circulated in the media by Severiano herself. The human eye can only comprehend what it sees and the public consensus is that Pras is living large. However, he’s contempt with The Score being a long time ago. While he’s eternally grateful for the experience, he doesn’t just doesn’t hound the mailbox waiting for royalty checks to come in.

“I have different investments,” he continues. “I pay my taxes so I’m not worried about the IRS. I’m partners with a private equity company and I’m also into real instate. I’m part of a group that’s in the middle of purchasing The Plaza Hotel along with other properties and we just put in about a $2 billion bid. I’m just quiet about it! But that’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve been chilling, man [Laughs]. And not to do a shameless plug, but I’m still involved in the arts. I have the movie Sweet Micky for President coming out soon.”

Even with his affairs in order, it still hasn’t made it easy for the bond to be created with his the child he brought into the world.

“I can’t have a relationship [with my son] because I’m in the middle of a court battle and she’s preventing me from doing so,” he says remorsefully. “Unfortunately when it comes to family court, she’s considered the primary caretaker by default because me and her never had any sort of relationship.”

“What is a deadbeat dad?” Pras asks rhetorically. “I pay $3,100–straight to the court, every single month. And then the court gives her the money. I did not arbitrarily give her that number. The court picked the number. See how it works in New York is, [child support] is not based on the father’s income. I can make $100 million dollars and it doesn’t matter. It’s based on the needs of the child. I didn’t write the laws.

To put into perspective how the additional $37,000 tax-free income can be considered as superfluous, Pras tells Hip-Hop Wired how he grew up in a two-parent household in New Jersey with his sister and their total combined income only amounted up to $40,000.

“I wasn’t born rich at all,” recalls Pras. “What kept me alive was listening to Hip-Hop. But we did absolutely fine. I had adidas–my mom’s put them on layaway–but I had them.” Of course, his early delve into the rap culture would provide useful, as he would go on to sell millions of records with his cousin Wyclef Jean and Lauryn Hill on their smash hit album. Subsequently it appears that the old adage, “mo money, mo problems” has infiltrated his life because here we are.

“When you make over a certain threshold, they take a percentage of your income and give it to the child. If you make over something like $400,000, then it becomes about the child’s immediate needs,” he explains. “Now, this is her second time trying to get what is called an “upward modification.” The first time, she tried it, the judge shot it down. And this is for her FOURTH lawywer. I’ve only had one attorney throughout this entire process.”

“My son’s mom decided she wanted to move out of a place she could afford in New Jersey and move to the upper West Side [of NYC],” Pras says candidly. “That isn’t my responsibility! She thinks that because of my lifestyle, that she should be living like me.”

To clarify the extent of Severiano’s intentions and character, certain questions must be answered. Pras assures us that she isn’t a video vixen or unintelligent opportunist from the hood. On the contrary, the ex-Fugees star says she is a former political figure who actually earns $80,000 a year for herself.

“She makes $80,000 a year on top of me paying her tax-free $37,000,” an animated Pras starts up again. “[She’s] really irrational. I’m going to show you the type of person she is. At the beginning of this year, I paid her $80,000 because I wasn’t in her life and the courts felt like I needed to play catchup. I said cool–wrote the check and then proposed to start up a college fund that culminates $1,000 a month for the next 18 years.”

According to Pras, Severiano rejected the offer because her name wasn’t being placed on the account for controlling. Hip-Hop Wired also obtained a copy of the aforementioned $80,000 check (seen below) which caught Pras up with his child support payments.

On top of that, Pras has his reasoning for believing that the New York Post has a personal vendetta towards him and it started with this year’s World Cup trip.

“I have a right to go wherever the f*ck I want to go!,” he says in response to the backlash he received this past spring. “That’s no one’s business. My bills are paid every month! I pay my child support every month! The fact that she and Page Six are writing this misleading info about me just isn’t fair. You can’t play with people’s lives. That is malicious and reckless.”

He also confirms that the ongoing $30 million lawsuit against The Post is “going great.”

Although he’s hopeful for a future reconciliation down the line, the constant libel in the media has taken its toll on Pras’ perception of Severiano.

“I’m not her ex! She needs to stop lying about that. She wasn’t my girlfriend. I only slept with her in my whole, entire life,” he vents. “To put everything into perspective, I’ve seen her more times in court than I did when I was supposedly involved with her.”

Then, there was the inevitable pre-conception conversation that all parties of unplanned pregnancies have. According to Pras, he knew he was in for the long haul when the response to a potential abortion was, “You think I want to walk around with a Black baby?” Yikes.

That being said, Pras tells Hip-Hop Wired that he still looks forward to having an actual relationship with his son when he gets old enough to think for himself.

“Regardless of how my opinion comes out, everything I’m telling you is documented,” Pras concludes. “The facts are the facts. From the time my son was born, he’s been paid up until today. My financial manager pays the courts,” he clarifies. “Yes, I have a nice life and I’m not ashamed of that. This past week, I was at the Kennedy Center with the president honoring Al Green, Tom Hanks and Sting. I get around but I get around quietly. Even if I’m flying around privately, I still make sure my son is taken care of.”

Check The Next Page To See Photo Documentation Of The $80,000 Check Stubs

Photo: WENN/Fayesvision

1 2Next page »